Sir Celestine Omehia is the former Governor of Rivers State. In this interview with journalists in Abuja, he gave reasons why Buhari should not be voted in as President. In his view, if General Muhammadu Buhari is elected president in 2015, his election would be tantamount to retrogressing the country. Excerpts:

By Chioma Obinna

DO you think that President Goodluck Jonathan is a match for Buhari in the coming 2015 election?

I don’t have any fear about Buhari being the APC presidential
candidate. People are rating Buhari from his military achievements, but we are now talking about the democratic government of Nigeria.

If Buhari achieved anything, it was by the force of arms – the use of the army, the use of gun and so on. If you put Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan in the same environment, you will see that their behaviour would be different. One was democratically brought up. The democratic ideologies in him are different from the military ideologies in Buhari.

Practical politics


Buhari has not learnt anything about democracy and more so, Buhari’s so called achievements in administration were not piloted by him. They were practically piloted by his second-in-command and the second-in-command unfortunately, is not his second-in-command now. He has a professor as his running mate. And we are not talking of academic work; we are talking of practical politics.

We are not talking of who will be tested in the laboratory, we are not talking about who will be tested in the farmyard; we are talking of democracy in politics. So, if the two second-in-commands are not the same, it then means that Buhari cannot do better than Jonathan.

But one thing is basic: Jonathan has had democratic experience from being deputy governor to governor, from being governor to vice president, being vice president to president. You cannot compare their experience in life in terms of democratic experience. You cannot compare their achievements. Put on the same scale, Jonathan will score 80 percent, while Buhari will score 20 percent in democratic achievements.

If you put them on the same scale, the vice presidential candidate of the PDP who was once a governor and vice president for some number of years will score much more than the intimidated vice presidential candidate of the APC. So, put the two together, Nigerians are matured enough and reasonable enough to think and know that Jonathan stands a better chance to give Nigerians what they need. Again, don’t forget that being the president for four years running; Jonathan has set several things in motion: several projects, several principles, and several ideologies that could keep Nigeria moving.

On the other hand, if Buhari is given the opportunity, he will set Nigeria ten years backward because we will start a new idea not from where Jonathan has started. He will go back and draw a plan that is different from what Jonathan has started. And in that case, Nigeria will be taken ten years behind the schedule. So, the issue of continuity comes to play.

I have always said the issue of continuity is important in Nigerian politics and in the Nigerian administrative system. Mind you, APC is only coming up with vendetta. APC has never said anything good about any other party. So, when they talk about what they can do for Nigeria, APC would always think of how to destroy what the PDP has set up to do and in that case, there would be a lot of abandoned projects, there would be a lot of wastage of our resources, there would be a lot of acrimony between the two parties. So, there would be no need creating such things.

Waste of resources

Nigerians are not good with continuity and that is what we want to avoid.

The APC has always talked of change. That takes me to the idea of APC – change, APC – change. What is there to change? They have never told you what they want to change. They will never come out to say these are the programmes they want to change.

In any case, who are the members of the APC now, properly so called members APC? They are all members of the PDP who abandoned the project and ran into the APC. And what are they going to change? Changing what they had already done? Take for instance, the campaign director of APC is a former PDP person. What is he going to change? He is going to change what he started in PDP. What it means is that ab initio, he was wrong in all he did in the PDP.

Masari is the governorship candidate in Katsina and he was a Speaker in the PDP. What is he going to change? Look at the former PDP chairman from Kwara, Baraje, what is he going to change?

Audu Ogbeh was chairman of the PDP, what is he going to change? Does it mean that all these PDP members who are in APC were failures and they now realise that they were failures and they want to make a change? It is never easy to change what you have done unless somebody else will change it. So, APC cannot change what they have done.

One major issue that would remain a problem for President Jonathan is the issue of insecurity, what is your take on this?

The issue of insecurity is a common global phenomenon. Criminals are born every day. There are criminals all over the world and Nigeria is no exemption. What we must understand is that Jonathan did not create the insecurity in the north eastern part of Nigeria; therefore, it is the problem of Nigerians and not only Jonathan’s.

For Buhari to say he will end the insecurity immediately he takes over power, it then means that he is the creator of the situation. He knows the origin, he knows where it started and more so, he is from the north. Although he is from the North West, he is from the North; therefore, he created it to destabilize the administration of Jonathan.

Talking about insecurity, the people that are affected are Nigerians, therefore, he owes it a duty to help Nigerians and save their lives whether or not he is in power, whether or not the APC is in power. If they have the antidote to it, this is the time they should help instead of looking at Nigerians suffering and dying.

Suffering and dying

This is the time they should play their role in one way or the other. But the question is, what role have they played to end insecurity in Nigeria?

So, if they cannot proffer solution now, they have no solution at all even if they are in power.

The dust raised in Rivers state following the conduct of the governorship primary election is yet to settle. Are you confident that the PDP would have the day in the forthcoming election?

I am very sure of PDP winning Rivers state. I am very sure of that because primaries are always in this form. No primary election in Nigeria has ended and the loser agreed that it has ended.

There has always been the belief that the last is yet to be heard. Even till names are submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and even after that, people are still going to protest. So, it is natural in Nigeria. It is not the same thing when compared to other parts of the world where there are gallant losers.

In Nigeria, there are gallant winners, but there are no gallant losers. But one basic thing about Rivers state is that it is a PDP state. It has always been like that. People in Rivers state don’t really like going to opposition except the individuals.

When I left the PDP and joined the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), people joined me massively because of my personality as Celestine Omehia, because of their beliefs in my programmes, my ideologies and what I can afford them. So, people followed me and I still believe that the 2011 election was won in Rivers state by APGA led by me.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/12/buhari-ll-take-nigeria-10-years-back-omehia/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter

omehia is an empty barrel man.

I wonder why people are hustling for this out-dated man. Nigeria needs fresh blood not old analog people.this is digital age for goodness sake.

What do you expect from a man who only got his twitter account a week ago?

So, jona will take us 20yrs forward abi? With his stealing is not corruption ideology. All these PDP mouthpiece sef

Our youths are so watery! Sad!!

ruffp:
Our youths are so watery! Sad!!

Nna, which one is watery faa?

dajoaneke:
What do you expect from a man who only got his twitter account a week ago?

....and how does that affect his capacity to govern? Myopic mind! Please try and expand ur horizon.

haba is dat not what we want?

haba is dat not what we want?
wen 1 dollar is equals to 1 naira

owobokiri:


Nna, which one is watery faa?

Their inability to make use the brain God gave them freely. What makes Buhari old fashioned? Have they all forgotten that so many indiviiduals presently occupyn sensitive positions were part of his govt? E.g the much applauded David Mark was a military administrator in one of the states when Buhari was head of state. So why do such criticism come up each time buhari decides to come forth and save a drowning Nigeria. I expect those 'criminals' hellbent on retaining their political positions to bring up such rubbish but what baffles me is the youths are easily hoodwinked to believing and giving such thrash credence.

It is obvious that APC have made a mistake by electing (Buhari imposed himself) as their presidential candidate. It is no contest against the underachieving President Goodluck Jonathan. It is a case of gray and dark.

Though, Jonathan is not the best for option for Nigeria but it is a far cry to compare the two men.

Oqa celestine...to hell with ur views nd opinion...

Is this not the same guy the supreme court used a crazy excuse to remove him as governor, paving the way for the very stupid Amaechi in 2007?

So he even once joined APGA and now he has issues with those exercising the same right of changing association? So what was it he wanted to change then?
So Osibanjo being a professor is now bad news but Jonathan campaign of being the first academia president is such a good news? Ok.
And what was that about being tested in laboratory and farm yard? What's he talking about?
Am often marvel at the low intellect of these men and women.

Ok take us back to the days where food was plenty, naira had value, nigerians were not divided across lines. When what your efforts payed off. Brace yourself CHANGE has come

Sir Celestine Omehia has been reading too much of my articles and probably most of my social media comments.

There is one he forgot to state as it is, Buhari's political capital in Muslim Northern Nigeria is supported by his earlier call for Sharia implementation across Nigeria.

Let Buhari declare in BBC Hausa Broadcasting Service himself that the hope of implementing Sharia in a secular Nigeria is no longer feasible for the almajiris and their clerics to hear it from their transistor radios and see his popularity crumble to near zero and consequently be replaced by death threat.

Ngwakwe:
Sir Celestine Omehia has been reading too much of my articles and probably most of my social media comments.

There is one he forgot to state as it is, Buhari's political capital in Muslim Northern Nigeria is supported by his earlier call for Sharia implementation across Nigeria.

Let Buhari declare in BBC Hausa Broadcasting Service himself that the hope of implementing Sharia in a secular Nigeria is no longer feasible for the almajiris and their clerics to hear it from their transistor radios and see his popularity crumble to near zero and consequently be replaced by death threat.

I challenge Major General Mohamodu Buhari Rtd. to make the broadcast on BBC to clear his name as stated above.

Bacanister, Omeka, Obiagelli can you please pass across the message to Rotimi Amaechi/GMB ?

eunisam:
I wonder why people are hustling for this out-dated man. Nigeria needs fresh blood not old analog people.this is digital age for goodness sake.

There is no untainted fresh blood in Nigeria. Please don't deceive yourself, vision does not have an age limit.The office of president of Nigeria is the most tempting and potentially corrupting office in the world. You need a man of strong core values and vision in that place. There is a reason why Amaechi was not chosen as VP. This idiot Omehia who is saying all these was governor of rivers state for maybe a year or so and while he was in office it was monthly stipends to militants, stealing of government funds etc. until his cousin Amaechi took over and started doing some work for a change. Please visit Rivers State now and see the difference. Don't let people deceive you that the young only have ideas, the people who were in power in India when they developed atomic bombs and started training the boys who have taken over the IT world were septuagenarians. Deng Xiao Ping who turned China from communist backwater to innovative capitalist state was 80+ when he started changing China (please read up on the cultural revolution) ..at that same time the US president Ronald Reagan was 79.

ruffp:


....and how does that affect his capacity to govern? Myopic mind! Please try and expand ur horizon.

Your horizon is expanded yet you cant read between the line. Please expand more... we're not on the same thinking capacity.